Sunday, September 20, 2015

I am happy to report that I completed the Nautica Malibu Tri Classic Distance today and -- swimming, biking and running beside some really serious competitors was daunting -- I am very happy with my results.

It dawned a humbling day. Waiting an hour and five minutes for my swim wave to start was quite excruciating and a bit intimidating. Within my women's 40-49 age group, there were many experienced racers. Moments before our gun went off, House of Pain's "Jump Around" roared out of the speakers and more than one hundred 40 year olds got motivated. Forty is definitely the new 20!

The ocean conditions were the best in the 29 year history of the race and clear as can be; However, I did get a few kicks to the face and I did see a very dark 10 to 15 foot shadow below me at one point. Jason's advice in hindsight: "IF it was a shark or something that could bite you, it was more afraid of the racers than you are of it." Hmmm....dressed like a seal and thrashing around with 100 other women dressed like seals...smorgasbord comes to my mind; But hell, I lived to tell about it.

The bike was shortened to (around) 17.8 miles at the last minute and thank you to the event director, Michael Epstein Sports Production. It was a bit more challenging than expected but I did witness a lot of crashes and bike malfunctions so happy I completed it unscathed.

Shane and Jon Cryer

The run is where I was able to make up my time and I completed the event with a solid 8 minute mile for 4 miles.

I came in 13th in my age group but was only a blip on the radar overall: 671 out of 1,622.

The event was a family affair for the Maussers. Shane participated in the kids 100 yard dash for 11 and 12 year olds, and placed second.

At the end of the day, it was really about Children's Hospital Los Angeles. It was a star-studded event: Jeffrey Tambor was the awards MC, KTLA's Chris Schauble, Tia Carrera, Phil Keoghan, the host of the amazing race, and John Cryer were among many other celebrities who participated. (There were a lot of younger celebs but I am so old now that I am out of touch and didn't know who they were...honestly!)

Nautica Malibu Triathlon ended up raising more than $1.3 million dollars for our LA kids and their families who face challenges far greater and are way braver than any Triathlete in the event today.

Friday, September 18, 2015

In two days, I will be participating in the Nautica Malibu
Triathlon “Classic” distance which consists of a ½ mile swim, 18 mile bike ride
and 4 mile run.This is – by far – the
longest event I have set my sights on, and to say I am nervous as hell is an
understatement.

For those who know me personally or have read my blog over
the years, I have a passion for running.I have one full marathon, six or so half-marathons, and more 10K and 5K
races than I can count under my belt; so one may think that triathlons would be
a natural progression for a competitor like me.Actually, it didn’t go down like that at all.

A few years ago, my neighbor Lisa started competing in
Triathlons.She suggested that I do one
with her.I smiled politely and said I
would give it some thought but, in my head, I didn’t even consider the idea.

Now, I did grow up on the Jersey Shore and, during my youth,
I spent a lot of time at the beach and in the Atlantic Ocean.During the 70s, when I was my son Shane’s
age, my BFF Dina and I would get up and go to the beach every day, all summer
long.

No parent was anchored to the shore checking to see if we
were OK; I mean, why bother hiring life guards then.Some days, I would rent an old school canvas
raft to ride the waves or float to the last buoy; luckily, I never floated out
to sea. But on most days, it would just be my beach towel, a brown bag lunch and
my love of the Shore.

However, when I moved to Southern California in 1994, the
love affair ended. I can honestly say that, for more than 20 years, I could
count the number of times I entered the Pacific Ocean in Southern California on
one hand.The cold temperature and its angry
demeanor just didn’t seem inviting. To be honest, swimming in the ocean was a
complete non-issue and I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything until Shane
opened my eyes.

Our boy has always loved the ocean and, when he was 18
months old, he jumped right in with no hesitation. To my dismay, it was
January.

Today, Shane loves to boogey board and has surfed a little
bit but mostly he just loves to swim.I
would always make a valiant effort to act like I enjoyed swimming with him but
I would usually turn swim duty over to my husband Jason as quickly as possible.

It wasn’t only the discomforts of the Pacific, but it was
also the fear of the unknown lurking under the gray, green waters.When your local pier is a nursery for
juvenile White Sharks, it can be very daunting.

On top of it all, when Shane was born, I became a complete
worry wart:I fretted if he ate too
much; if he didn’t eat enough; if he was too hot; or too cold.The thing was that, as he got older, my
worrying seemed to get worse.

By the time he was in elementary school and I should be
relishing in his independence, I was pretty much paralyzed with anxiety about
all the things that could happen to him once he left the safety of my
sights.Luckily, I have a very normal
husband who made light of my concern.Shane
is our only child and, for the most part, Jason has always balanced out my over-protectiveness. Yet realistically, I knew I wasn’t setting a very good
example by being scared of my own shadow.

The bottom line: I realized that I had to grow some balls.So, when Lisa approached me again about doing
a Mini-Sprint Triathlon with her, I said yes.She took me under her wing and showed me the ropes and, for the first
time in my adult life, it felt good to be out of my comfort zone.

The running part was no problem and I knew I could at least
ride a bike, but the swimming was definitely going to be a difficult.I have never been a “strong swimmer” (my
favorite Martin Short quote btw) or a sport swimmer by any means.I made a soggy start swimming laps at my local
gym.I didn’t like water in my nose so I
had nose plugs, swim cap, goggles that seemed to buoy up the bags under my
eyes.I was definitely a sight and not
quite as glamorous as Esther Williams.

Slowly, I plugged away and my endurance grew.Soon, I no longer needed the nose plugs and
thank goodness because I could barely breathe while swimming.I did almost my entire training in a 25 meter
pool and, when Lisa asked if I was ready for an open ocean swim with her
Triathlon Trainer, I knew that I wasn’t but replied, sure!

I realized very quickly that swimming in the ocean is much,
much different than doing laps in a pool.Going out that day, I got beat up a bit by some daunting waves and my
goggles fogged up instantly. Once we got out past the wave break about 100
yards (the length of a football field), I realized that I had never been this
far out in the ocean without some sort of flotation device and those bags
under my eyes weren’t going to help me now.

I felt blind and my fear was palpable.The Tri Trainer said swim to the pier (about
a quarter mile) and I thought to myself, there is no way I’m going to make
it.But the other women were already
gone and my pride was beginning to prune, so I prepared to do the front crawl
stroke.

I put my face in the very murky and very deep water and the
iconic cover of Peter Benchley’s novel, “Jaws” instantly popped into my
mind.I kept picturing myself swimming
(OK with a wet suit and not naked) but with that giant Great White coming straight
up to get me.

Needless to say, I had a full blown panic attack.I could not put my face in the water and
tried swimming back stroke and then side stroke but the feeling of wanting to
just scream and run was overwhelming.The
problem was that I couldn’t do either because I was 100 yards out to sea.The trainer came by and talked me off the
ledge and, I thought to myself, I need to pay him extra for his open ocean
therapy session.He did calm me down and
said he had seen grown men more scared than me and I thought to myself, Shane
would love this and he wouldn’t be scared. He would just do it.

LA Triathlon 2015: Coming in 3rd EFS

With my little guy as my inspiration, I started to swim and
made it to the pier but that was all I had in me and, once we were done, I was
out of the water as fast as a shot.

I was very disappointed in myself after that first ocean
swim and vacillated with the thought of quitting the race.But I thought to myself, what kind of message
would I send to Shane if I were to quit without even trying?

The days leading up to my first race – which consisted of a
¼ mile swim, 5 mile bike ride and 1.5 mile run – were excruciating.I was so scared that I could barely eat or
sleep.It only got worse as the event
approached and on the day of I was actually sick with anticipation.But come what may, I knew that I had to stick to my commitment.In reality, all the organizing of the
equipment and the over-thinking of the transitions were a comfort to me.

When I finally crashed through those first waves with the
rest of the women in my division, I felt alive and a part of something that was
much bigger than myself; And later when I crossed the finish line, the feeling
of having faced some pretty big personal fears and accomplished something that
I never, ever thought would be possible for me was exhilarating.

Today, I am not immune to my fears but I try not to let them
beat me down. This coming Sunday in Malibu is no exception, but I know that as
long as I have Shane cheering me on, I can do anything.

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Tracy Mausser

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I am the creator of All Things Fashionating, a personal and lifestyle blog where this Jersey Girl turned Angeleno posts about my real life stories, notions of fashion and style, views on family, obsession with health and exercise, journey into spirituality, among other topics I find fashionating.